with many thanks to nick @Mylegalforum for letting us repost see Mylegalforum for more

Here’s how Clarke’s proposals will affect many lives if the Government gets its way this Tuesday – you can kiss goodbye to legal aid for all this..

Clarke is opposing…

(1) A clearer definition of his functions (1)

(2) Access to legal services for domestic violence victims (2)

(3) A better definition of the distinction between him and his director of legal services, but he is putting forward a counter proposal for individual cases which he proposes imposes ‘independence’ (3 & 4 replaced)

(4) Any legal help for welfare benefit work up to first – tier tribunal level (168)

(5) Has made a concession on welfare benefits in the upper tribunal & higher courts which needs to be treated with some degree of caution until its full legal effect is known (169 & 240)

(9) Exceptions in Industrial disease cases where breach of duty by employer (32)

(10) Access to a legal services for a wider number of children (171)

(11) Access to legal services in clinical negligence cases in instances which took place when the victim was a child (172)

Nor is he giving much on domestic violence provisions with the additional opposition of amendments 192 to 196 (excluding 195)

In summary – he’s gone against the Lords on almost everything with some tinkering to suit his government’s aims & a meaningless concession on Upper Tribunal & higher court work in welfare benefit cases which is unlikely to benefit advice agencies given the low number of cases when the bigger problem they face is helping clients with the tsunami of benefits appeals at First Tier level – set to increase to 644,000 appeals per year according to the Tribunal judiciary!

Contact your MP – there are many links to different ways of doing so on the internet. We’ve put one here…